Budget: What we spend and how we spend it

The budget includes the allocation of financial resources to different services and projects, proposed provisions and reserves, the Council tax base, setting the Council tax and decisions relating to the Council’s borrowing requirement, the control of its capital expenditure and the setting of virement limits.

Carlisle City Council set its budget for 2021/22 on 17 February 2021 at a Special Full Council meeting. A copy of the budget is available below: 

We have successfully achieved/identified over £9 million in transformational savings since 2010/11 and have a solid financial base in order to set our 2021/22 budget.

A revised savings requirement has been calculated of £0.5million in 2021/22; increasing to £1.2million in 2022/23 and further increasing to £2.05million in 2023/24.

How are we going to save money?

We are committed to protecting front-line services, such as waste and street cleaning, and especially to our most vulnerable residents, but we have to take some tough decisions about our services and future spending.

We are determined to protect important services by doing things differently, such as:

• Working in partnership with other councils or organisations;
• Buying in services (where it makes good financial sense);
• Looking at transferring services to alternative providers and to community groups, if appropriate;
• Focusing on raising more income from our own assets; and
• Making our services even more efficient.

Where do we get our money from?

We collect £7.807 million from Council Tax which is only 11% of the overall Council Tax bill you pay or, for 2020/21, £4.17 per household per week for a Band D property.

We collect the remainder of your Council Tax bill on behalf of Cumbria County Council (75%), Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (14%) and Parish Councils.

Where does my money go? 

Your £4.17 per household (Band D) per week is spent in the following areas:

A graphical view of our spending breakdown